1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an aligning and feeder device for a parts feeder, and particularly relates to an improvement for transporting small pieces, such as rubber plugs, to a processing device in a desired orientation.
2. Description of Background Information
An alignment and feeding device is known in the prior art as depicted in FIGS. 8-10. FIG. 8(A-D) of the accompanying drawings illustrates diagrammatically the steps through which a rubber plug is moved by a mechanism normally provided as a parts feeder. FIG. 9 is a front view of a part W to be fed to the parts feeder. FIG. 10 represents a schematic sectional drawing showing a major area of the conventional parts feeder.
As illustrated in FIGS. 9(A) and 9(B) in one example, the part W comprises a rubber plug. The rubber plug is a cylindrical body of stepped outline comprising a first portion W1 of larger diameter and a second continuous and concentric portion W2 of smaller diameter(although the portion W2 of the plug depicted in FIG. 9(A) is smaller than the portion W2 of the plug depicted in FIG. 9(B). The plugs are so positioned and arranged that in a given orientation the first and second portions are both aligned in a corresponding orientation at the processing device.
FIG. 10 shows a schematic sectional drawing showing a major area of the conventional parts feeder.
As shown in FIG. 8, the parts feeder has a collecting area 1 which collects parts from a storage area for storing the parts W, a sorting area 2 for adjusting the orientation of the collected parts W, and a transporting area 3 for transporting the aligned parts W from an upstream side in an order such as described above. The parts W are then transported to a downstream side by giving, to a sorting area 2 and a transporting area, vibrations generated at an oscillating area which is not illustrated.
As shown in FIG. 8(A), in the collecting area, the parts are fed to a lower stream side by providing a difference in level 1a, thereby causing an axis of part W which represents a column to follow a vertical line. At this stage, some of the parts W1 are disposed in orientations with the larger diameter portion W1 upward(ie. the smaller diameter portion W2 being downward) while some are contrary to the former.
As shown in FIG. 8(B) a drop board 2a which regulates the orientation along the periphery of the part W is provided in the sorting area. Thus when a part with its larger diameter portion W1 upward is transported as shown in FIG. 8(C), the larger diameter portion W1 of the part W makes contact with the drop board 2a. The part W1 will then deviate from a normal transport direction followed by collection into a collecting area 1. As shown in FIG. 8(D), only the parts W sorted out at the sorting area 2 are transported to the lower stream side.
First of all, with reference to FIG. 9(B), there are sometimes parts of which the larger diameter portion W1 and the smaller diameter portion W2 are comparatively closer in dimension, and therefore similar in shape, depending on the particular part W. Even when sorting parts of such a shape by use of the above mentioned drop board 2a, some parts may remain on the sorting area 2 despite their orientation being contrary to the normal as shown in FIG. 10. This demonstrates a deficiency such that the parts W flowed as if they were located on the downstream side.
Furthermore, with the structure or method mentioned above, sorting was merely carried out for the parts of which the orientation was normal as shown in FIG. 8, giving rise to a problem of reducing the yield rate by a quantity of parts W disposed at an opposite orientation. The present invention was made in the light of the above mentioned problems, with an aim to provide an aligning and feeding device capable of efficiently transporting parts reliably at a normal orientation.
According to our invention, an aligning and feeding device includes an orientation identification device that identifies the orientation of parts installed in a transport route for a parts feeder which transport parts have a given orientation, an inverting device that inverts the parts, and a control device that controls the motion of the inverting device based on the orientation of the identified parts.
With the invention containing this specific item and because of the identification of the orientation of parts by the orientation identifying device in carrying out the inversion of parts, an inverting function of the inverting device is made possible without fault. In addition, even when the orientation of the parts is not normal, parts are fed to a downstream side by inversion without returning them to an upstream side. This makes it possible to suppress the reduction in a yield rate.
The present invention has been created to obviate the problems described above, and the purpose is to provide a reliable orientation identification device and a transporting route for a parts feeder to transport parts in a desired orientation.
An orientation identification device is provided in a transporting route for a parts feeder which transports parts in a desired orientation. The orientation identifying device can identify the orientation of parts, According to the orientation thus identified, an inverting device corrects the orientation of parts.
In one preferred embodiment, an orientation identifying device identifies the orientation of those parts installed in a transport route for a parts feeder having a given orientation, an inverting device that inverts the parts and a controller that controls the motion of the inverting device based on the identified orientation of the parts.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the inverting device includes an inverting transport route that changes the orientation of a part, a non-inverting transport route that feeds normal parts to a downstream side bypassing the inverting route, and a dividing member that divides the parts fed from the parts feeder into an appropriate one of the routes based on identification of the identifying means.
In another aspect of the present invention, a dividing space is traversed by a reciprocally mounted dividing member, a pair of communicating holes are interconnected by a tube, and a pressurizing air supply hole and a transport exhaust hole each face a respective communication hole. The air supply hole and the exhaust hole are blocked by the dividing member in a home position in which a part is in a given position and follows the non-inverting route, end the dividing member is movable into a second position to unblock the holes by aligning them with the complementary holes in the dividing member to define a route for an inverted part.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, the dividing member includes a slide holder equipped with a recessed area to receive parts from transport area, an insertion hole formed in the recessed area defining a transport slit, and a photoelectric sensor that judges the quantity of light transmitted through the slit to indicate the orientation of a part.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the control device that reciprocates the dividing member is operated in response to a detected signal from the sensor to move the dividing member between the home position and the second position.
In another aspect of the present invention, the control device uses a CPU for receiving a detected signal, and a cylinder for moving the dividing member in response to a signal from the CPU.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the CPU uses a micro computer and a measuring area that measures a transmitted light quantity from a signal that is entered via the sensor and an orientation judging area which judges the orientation of the parts.
With the present invention, the parts can be inverted efficiently with the use of less material due to the change in the orientation of parts by using the switching transport routes.
Other exemplary embodiments and advantages of the present invention may be ascertained by reviewing the present disclosure and the accompanying drawings.